Venetian blind slats



March 3, 1964 E. J. NADosY VENETIAN BLIND sLATs Filed June 14, 1961frauen/for Edward @y @m @fig/*5f United States Patent O 3,122,954VENETIAN BLIND SLATS Edward J. Nadosy, 9701 Francisco, Evergreen Park,Ill. Filed June 14, 1961, Ser. No. 117,043 2 Claims. (Cl. 233-42) Thisinvention relates to Venetian blinds and particularly to slats usedtherein and the production of such slats.

Venetian blind slats have, of course, been made of many diierentmaterials and in many different finishes, but in all of the priorstructures, the production of the slat has required the use of elaborateand expensive manufacturing equipment. In view of this it is the primaryobject of this invention to simplify the production of Venetian blindslats and to do this by enabling a readily available commercial materialto be used and converted into slats merely by sawing of this material.

Other and related objects of the invention are to enable attractivetranslucent Venetian blind slats to be produced in a simple andeconomical manner; to produce Venetian blind slats of a novel crosssectional form; to produce such slats from a strong translucent materialso that novel patterns of light transmission and reflection areobtained; and to enable light and economical sheet material to bereadily converted into Venetian blind slats.

Other and further objects of the present invention will be apparent fromthe following description and claims, and are illustrated in theaccompanying drawings, which, by way of illustration, show a preferredembodiment of the present invention and the principles thereof, and whatis now considered to be the best mode in which to apply theseprinciples. Other embodiments ot the invention embodying the same orequivalent principles may be used and structural changes may be made asdesired by those skilled in the art without departing from theinvention.

In the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view of a Venetian blindembodying slats made under this invention;

FIGS. 2 and 3 are views similar to FIG. 1 and showing the blind adjustedto its opposite extremes of slat tilting adjustment;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary perspective view showing a sheet of reinforcedtranslucent plastic material of corrugated form and indicating by dottedlines the general manner in which such a sheet may be divided to producethe novel Venetian blind slats shown in FIGS. l to 3; and

FIG. 5 is a schematic View showing further details of the manner inwhich the sheet of FIG. 4 is divided.

For purposes of disclosure the invention is herein illustrated asembodied in Venetian blind slats which have a reversely curved crosssectional form to provide strength and novel light transmission andretlection patterns. In FIGS. l to 3 a plurality of slats 10 are shownin various positions of adjustment as they are supported on the ladders11L of the conventional ladder tapes 11 of a Venetian blind, and byreason of the reversely curved cross sectional form of the slats 10 andthe fact that such reverse curve is not symmetrical with respect to thelongitudinal center line of the slats, the slats 10 of this inventionproduce novel patterns of light transmission and reflection, and sincethese slats are produced from colored translucent material, furthercharacteristics of novelty and attractiveness are attained in thecompleted Venetian blind.

Under and in accordance with this invention the slats 10 are producedfrom a readily available corrugated material such as the corrugatedplastic sheet 15 shown in FIG. 4, and by separating or cutting the sheet3,122,954 Patented Mar. 3, 1964 15, as will be described, along linesparallel to the corrugations C of the sheet 15 is divided into aplurality of slats 10 of identical cross sectional form. The sheet 15 isa commercially available product made from liber glass reinforcedtranslucent plastic material which is available in several differentthicknesses and a wide variety of colors. One widely available brand ofsuch material is sold under the trademark Filon by Filon Plastic Corp.of Hawthorne, California. This sheet material is relatively exible inone direction so that it is often sold in rolls, and it is stockedthroughout the country in lumber yards and the like. Such material ismade by several companies according to relatively standardizedspecifications as to weight, spacing of corrugations, and depth ofcorrugations.

The corrugated material above described is now available with itscorrugations having a nominal spacing of 2/2 inches and a nominal depthof 5%@ inch, and in another form where these dimensions are nominally 1%inch and 1A inch. Sheets having either of these sets of dimensions maybe used in producing the Venetian blind slats 10 under the presentinvention, it being kept in mind that the sheets having differentlydimensioned corrugations will necessarily provide slats 10 of differentwidths.

Thus it may be pointed out that by far the largest proportion ofVenetian blind supplies such as tilt bars, toe rails and ladder tapesare dimensioned for use with slats having a width of substantially 1% to1% inches, and it has been discovered that corrugated plastic sheetswhere the corrugations have nominal dimensions of 21/2 inches by *V16inch may be employed to produce Venetian blind slats 10 having thisstandardized dimension, or where desired, such corrugated material maybe used to produce even under slats up to about two inches in width. Ofparticular importance in this respect is the fact that normal variationsin the dimensions of the corrugations in a particular run or supply ofthe corrugated sheets 15 have but little and inconsequential elect onslats 10 and their production, as will be explained.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, and as shown diagrammatically in FIG. 5, thesheet 15 has corrugations C that are of substantially sine Wave form,and to facilitate detailed description, each corrugation C has beenindicated as extending through a distance of 360 substantially inaccordance with the usual mathematical description of sine wave form butin order to coordinate the slat forming steps of my method with thisillustration, the repetitive cycle of the curve has been located at thepoints of maximum downward amplitude of the wave form, rather than atthe points of zero amplitude.

In producing slats 10 of identical cross sectional form from thecorrugated sheet 15, it will be observed in FIG. 5 that each slat 19comprises slightly less than 270 of the 360 width of a corrugation C sothat four slats 10 of identical width and cross section are producedfrom three corrugations C, the sheet 15 being divided parallel to thecorrugations C by sawing along kerfs K that are indicated in eachinstance by spaced dotted lines in FIG. 4. It has been pointed out thatsome variation is experienced in the nominal spacing of the corrugationsC, and in FIG. 5 these corrugations C are shown as having a spacing of221/32 inches which is somewhat more than the 21/2 inch spacing that isset in the specifications under which such material is made and sold.

The somewhat larger dimension shown in FIG. 5 represents a variationthat has been encountered in random purchases of material intended tohave a 21/2 inch spacing of its corrugations C, and it is found thatsuch variations in every instance involve an increase rather than adecrease in the nominally specified spacing. Such variations, however,have no burdensome eect on the produc- Y tion of slats 10 of uniformWidth and cross sectional form since compensation for such variationsmay be made merely by using a saw kerf 10 of a different Widthdetermined by the dimensional variation encountered ina Y particular lotor supply of sheets 15.

Under the present invention, each slat 10 is formed so as to extendsubstantially from a point of maximum amplitude of the sine curvethrough an adjacent point of zero amplitude and through the nextadjacent point of maximum amplitude substantially to the next point ofzero amplitude, the Width of the nal slat being equal to 270 of the SineWave curve less substantially the Width of the saw kerf K. Thus, in FIG.5, the division lines between the several 270 portions are designated as15A to 15P, and with the corrugations C having a spacing of 22%.2inches, a saw kerf K of 15/64 inch width is cut in a centered'relationalong each of the division lines 15A to 15P to produce four slats 10 ofidentical cross sectional form and of a uniform 1% inch Width.

The principles above set forth may of course be applied to corrugatedsheets of other dimensions. Thus as applied to sheets which have thecorrugations spaced nominally at 1% inches, the present method may beemployed to produce slats embodying the invention and have a Width ofslightly under one inch.

vThe slats 10 that are thus produced are light in Weight, and having thereverse curve cross section possess adequate resistance to bending.Moreover, the sheets 15 from which the slats 10 are made are availablein many attractive colors and with many ditfeernt coefficients of lightand heat transmission so that under the present invention Venetian blindslats may be provided to satisfy many different requirements that cannotbe satisfied with conventional slats.

From the foregoing description it will be apparent that the presentinvention provides a Venetian blind slat of novel form and constructionand that the invention enables such slats to be produced frommaterials'that are readily available in most locations.

It will also be apparent that Ythis invention enables Venetian blindslats to be produced from available materials that are made and stockedin different colors and which provide for different heat and lighttransmission.

Thus, While a preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustratedherein, it is to be understood that changes and variations may be madeby those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scopeof the appending claims.

I claim:

v1. The method of producing a plurality of Venetian blind slats ofidentical cross sectional form and width from a sheet of Vreinforcedplastic that is corrugated to a substantially sine Wave curve in crosssection which includes the steps of cutting the sheet parallel tothecorrugations along a first line of severance centered on a maximumamplitude point of the sine Wave curve,

References Cited in the le of this patent g UNITED STATES` PATENTS695,553 YHeany Mar. 18, 1902 955,385 Crawford Apr. 19, 1910 1,698,891Overbury Jan. 15, 1929 2,088,120 Smith July 27, 1937 2,315,640 Morse etal Apr. 6, 1943 2,620,869 Friedman Dec. 9, 1952 2,854,565 Kruger Sept.30, 1958 3,007,359 Lang et al Nov. 7, 1961

1. THE METHOD OF PRODUCING A PLURALITY OF VENETIAN BLIND SLATS OFIDENTICAL CROSS SECTIONAL FORM AND WIDTH FROM A SHEET OF REINFORCEDPLASTIC THAT IS CORRUGATED TO A SUBSTANTIALLY SINE WAVE CURVE IN CROSSSECTION WHICH INCLUDES THE STEPS OF CUTTING THE SHEET PARALLEL TO THECORRUGATIONS ALONG A FIRST LINE OF SEVERANCE CENTERED ON A MAXIMUMAMPLITUDE POINT OF THE SWINE WAVE CURVE, FEEDING THE SHEET PERPENDICULARTO SAID LINE OF SEVERANCE THROUGH A DISTANCE EQUAL SUBSTANTIALLY OF 270*WITH RESPECT TO THE SINE WAVE CURVE OF THE CORRUGATIONS, AND CUTTINGSAID SHEET ALONG A SECOND LINE OF SEVERANCE PARALLEL TO AND SPACED FROMTHE FIRST TIME OF SEVERANCE IN SUBSTANTIALLY 270* WITH RESPECT TO THESINE WAVE CURVE OF SAID CORRUGATIONS.